


Fly Me to the Moon

by dratinigirl



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alcohol, M/M, Minor Character Death, drunk!sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 04:28:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3367877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dratinigirl/pseuds/dratinigirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur Kirkland is captain of one of the universe's most feared pirate ships. During a routine voyage through the void of space, he comes across a ship bearing live prisoners. On it finds who is possibly the only other human within one million miles, Alfred F. Jones. Done for USUK sweetheart's week 2015.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fly Me to the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! Gosh, this is the first APH fic I've written in three years, I'm excited! I hope you all enjoy it!

The empty vacuum around the ship radiated a deep shade blue, lights drifting in and illuminating the void with light from galaxies far away. The massive ship drifted through the void, engines sending it forward off to some distant location. Off out there in between the countless number of stars, there’d be a place where the crew would set anchor someday, and leave the ship for rot.

That day was a long way off.

Every nook of the ship teamed with the vermin of the universe, the cretins of their home worlds cast off to find this place one where they could rest their head. Under one head they worked to become the terror of the known universe, and perhaps even that which lie beyond it, plundering and burning every vessel to have the misfortune of coming across their path. The ship was heavy with gold and cargo that ranged from petty drugs to the ashes of kings, tucked away in vials. One earthling, a billion miles from home, stood above them as their captain.

Arthur Kirkland adjusted his hat, staring out into the distant starlight. One of his eyes remained covered with a patch, for use in case the world around the ship should grow dark. He stood on the end of the boat-shaped vessel, protected by a pressurized bubble of oxygen and other gasses need in order to sustain life for his crew. He turned his head, a different light hooking onto his gaze.

Just as the captain opened his mouth, a call came from above in the crow’s nest. “Captain, another ship approaching from the west!” The crewman called out. The non-earthling creature’s third eye and six maroon-skinned arms made him prime material to spot out the dangers of the universe ahead of the ship. Arthur turned to him, the end of his boot tapping metal.

“What kind? A cruise liner, or is it a cargo barge? If it doesn’t have anything valuable tucked on it, we’ll set course for the east and let them on their way.” He returned the call back up the creature. It peered more closely into it’s supercharged pair of binoculars, waving three arms.

“It’s neither captain, it looks... It looks like some kind of war ship!”

One of Arthur’s brows cocked at the statement. His head veered back towards the open starline, tracing the tell-tail light of another ship in the distance. He contemplated how she should act. He couldn’t recall that there were any warring planets in this sector of the galaxy, but this one could be lurking about waiting to cause mayhem among worlds.

“Captain, your orders please!” Another request came from high above. The human turned around, jumping back down to the main deck with a heavy thunk.

“Get me my red coat! All hands are to be on deck, immediately!”

 

...

 

How long had it been here now? It was hard to recall the time spent in the darkness of the cargo hull, surrounded by the living bodies of species that he couldn’t name. Bodies, that’s all they were as they sat in line with one another, bound, doing little more than just breathing. Perhaps even less than that, if any of the intergalactic group could live through any other means. It was hard to see enough to tell, and there didn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel for this unfortunate band of prisoners.

Alfred, a human earthling, sat on his knees with his head hung. His muscles were stiff from sitting in this position for most of the day, and oh what he would have given to just be able to walk around for an hour. But, asking for that here was like asking to be freed from death. He and all of the others held here as cargo were held as captives for bargaining among the warship, plucked from jailhouses of the ship’s home planet.

Alfred sat among murderers and plagiarizers, and he wondered how he’d ever gotten here from petty theft. Been in the wrong place at the wrong time, perhaps. Maybe the being in charge of divvying out the prisoners had a beef against humans. Maybes aside, he didn’t see himself ever escaping this place alive.

The single door to the cargo hold wheezed as it was opened, and light came bursting into the room. Alfred and many others flinched, their eyes nearly blinded by the rare stream of light that entered them. A body came in, boots thudding against the metal floor. The creature held a clipboard in its sticky fingers, four orange eyes examining the paper. Alfred had always thought that it looked kind of like a squid, but he’d never dared to comment on that opinion. It’s gaze rolled over the group, examining them to be sure that none of them had died between visits.

“Alright, it’s time for roll call.” It droned. It began to list off the names of those held captive, drawling on in its scratchy voice. It went down the line, one by one, listing them off in the closest thing that could resemble alphabetical order. It was hard to categorize such a diverse group of beings. In the end, they were all criminals gathered here for their crimes.

Alfred hated this. He hated that he’d ever left earth, that he’d ever thought that there was more promise for him out there among the stars. That’s how he’d become a thief in the first place, scrounging up what he could, when he could. Intergalactic travel wasn’t as simple as he’d thought, and what he wouldn’t give to be back on-

“Jones. Alfred F Jones.” He heard the creature call out his name, breaking him from his bubble of thought. The creature knocked him on the head, trailing gobs of mucus in his hair. “Oi, are you still alive there? I’ve called yer name three times now, speak up before I toss ya out in the vacuum.”

“Present, sir.” Alfred mumbled under the weight of the crewman’s tentacle-like appendage. It drew the clipboard back up to its chest, sneered at the human, and kept moving down the line of captive vagrants. The door was inching closed slowly, the light in the room dimming with every milimeter. Alfred’s eyes drew to a slow close.

Once he’d been enthralled with the stars and the light that they brought him, shimmering as far as the earth. Here, there was nothing more than endless darkness.

Red light filled the room, and Alfred’s head shot up with the screech of sirens.

“Pirates approaching fast, all hands on deck!”

 

...

 

Arthur didn’t waver as the two ships collided, his vessel’s diamond alloy hull easily denting that of the warship. From this point they’d been firing without canons, and he could already hear more than one alert siren coming from the ship’s speakers. Guns were fired from both sides at the moment the two ships collided. Arthur’s men hopped from their ship to the next, bodies falling left and right. The captain pulled his fluorescent laser pistol from his pocket, putting a hole in the head of the first man to point a barrel in his direction.

He took a long, nearly whimsical step to board the warship, making his way towards the interior as his men fought off the ship’s lackeys. Making a beeline, he set out to find the ship’s captain. The interior of the ship was empty by now, and when he’d slipped in, there was nothing much else than to access the control room. It had been marked easily enough with a label, locked tight. Arthur took care of that by firing a continuous beam from his pistol, slicing through the door. He made his own entrance, the metal falling into the captain’s room as with a shuddering thunk.

Arthur laid his eye on the creature that piloted the ship, some fish-eyed thing from a planet that he didn’t care to name off. He drew closer, gun pointed at the thing’s head. It quivered, sets of eyes staring at the pirate in raw terror.

“Wait a moment, it doesn’t have to be like this!” It cried out, falling on deaf ears. “I can give you anything that you want, money, bodies, I’ll even enlist you in-”

Zap.

Arthur blew on the end of his pistol, staring dead-eyed down at the ship’s late captain. Now he’d have no trouble raiding the rest of the ship, as he trusted his crew to have taken down the others by now. Surely some of his own had been lost, but it was fine so long as another vagrant was ready to come aboard the next time they came to set anchor. He turned on his heel, leaving the alien corpse behind in his wake.

He held his gun at the ready as footsteps came running near. To his relief it was one of his own crew, speckled with green fluid that he could only assume was blood. “Cap’n, we’ve taken out every member of their crew- but their are hostages in the cargo hold. Should we kill them as well?”

Arthur cocked a brow. “Hostages?” He inquired. “Take them and load them up as well, they’re cargo just the same as everything else. And be careful this time when you’re transferring any ammunition, we lost too many last time.”

“Yes sir!” The captain’s subordinate called off, making way for another part of the ship. It was hard knowing if there would be any more ships coming to this one’s aide. For all they knew, there could be an entire armada hidden behind the nearest dust cloud. Speed was of the greatest importance here.

With his gun still at the ready, the captain made his way back to the uppermost deck to supervise as his crew moved cargo from one ship to the next. He came to find them loading up food and water first. “The lot of them must have been planning on getting fat...” He mumbled to himself as he noted the quantity of supplies being transferred. No problem, it would be eaten in due time. For now his ship could hold plenty.

He didn’t say much, waiting to see these so called prisoners. If none of them had potential to be one of his own, they’d be shot and tossed out to be sucked into the nearest black hole. If they did have the heart to serve under him, then he’d welcome them with food and shelter.

The first creature was hauled up from the cargo barge. Not unusually, Arthur noted that there were several races that he couldn’t identify being pulled out of the darkness. The amount of life and organisms that the universe held was nearly as vast as space itself, and it was too much of a chore to learn even a third of what lie out there. He did, however, pay special attention to one captive that was brought up to the deck.

A human man, gaunt from the amount of time spent below deck came stumbling up from below. Unlike the others, he held his head up as he was carted off to the other ship, looking out at the stars for the first time in what Arthur assumed to be ages. It had easily been years since he’d laid eyes on another live human being.

They caught eyes for just a sliver of a second, both equally as surprised to see the other. But, the captive was yanked away, pulled under into another cargo hold until the captain of the pirates saw fit with what to do with him.

It wasn’t much longer before the warship had been stripped bare, leaving behind nothing but bodies and the shame of what had been done here. Arthur was the last to board his ship as he’d been the first to leave it, kicking off the other vessel to float, dead in space, until it eventually dissolved into nothing. He removed his gloves, looking to his expectant crew.

“Good job men!” He praised them. “Now, I saw an awful lot of booze being carted off of that bloody death machine. Let’s drink, and celebrate!” He held up his hand and the crew cheered, scrambling to prepare for a night of fun and drink. Arthur smirked, and set out to move the ship to a place where they could celebrate their victory without interruption. He would make merry after doing off with the hostages.

 

...

 

Alfred felt energetic. For the first time since he’d been put on the warship, he felt like there was hope, like there was a reason that this other ship had taken him and the others as their own. While the rest of the prisoners held their heads low to their chests, the young human bounced on his knees, waiting for someone to come through the door and inspect them. He heard feet all around the ship, moving and running around, full of life. Eventually, he heard a fiddle being plucked somewhere, and it was a sound that could have brought him to tears.

The door was slammed open, smacking the wall so hard that it was a wonder that it didn’t come clean from the hinges. The human that he’d caught eyes with earlier, the first he’d seen in years, looked down at them with one uncovered eye. This man, he had to be the captain, what with his plumed had and brightly colored coat. The austere expression on his face, however, gave Alfred less hope and more fear. His life was in the hands of this man.

The captain looked them all over, head turning back and forth slowly. There was complete silence among the group of captives, nothing but the thunk of boots on the floor as the other human made his way down the line. On the opposite site of the room, he stopped in front of the first captive, pulling a gun from inside of his pocket.

“Why were the lot of you on that warship? I want an honest answer, if I think you’re lying, I’ll blow whatever’s in your head clear to pieces.” He asked the creature. It held it’s head low, refusing to look up to meet the eye of the human.

“Prisoners. We were taken from the jails as bartering tools in the case of... In the case of being attacked by pirates.” Came a soft reply.

Arthur’s expression didn’t shift an inch. “So you then. What’d they find you guilty of”

“Murder.”

Zap.

The other prisoners jumped as the pistol was fired, blowing in the head of the first prioner in line. Arthur put his hand on his hip. “An eye for an eye, or so they say. Anyway, if we should meet in the afterlife, I’d appreciate it if you referred to me as ‘sir’.

From that moment on, down the line the captain went. He asked each prisoner of the crimes for which they had been admitted. Murder. Rape. Arson. One of them lied, and he was given two shots to his skull. Alfred’s body was coated in sweat, and his heart beating against the backs of his eardrums as the captain came to him. He was the last in line, and now, the only prisoner left alive by the ruthless man standing above him.

“What’s it with you, then? You must have come a long way if you intended to commit crime anywhere near here.” The captain noted. He put his boot to Alfred’s sweat-dripping cheek and pointed the gun to his head. “Born on earth, were you?”

“Yes sir.”

“What did you do to wind up here?”

“I stole sir.”

“And what did you steal?”

“A loin of meat and two loaves of bread, sir.”

“Well enough.” The captain called out, pulling the gun away and tucking it back into his pocket. “The lot of us are thieves just as well, it’d be nice to have someone with some experience among us.

Alfred blinked. “Excuse me, sir?”

Arthur looked back down at him. “I can untie you now, and you can join me and my crew in plundering the stars out there. Or I can kill you now, and you can enjoy your eternity in whatever other hell awaits you.”

The bound earthling gulped. This was what he’d wanted in leaving his home planet, wasn’t it? To leave and journey among the stars without ever looking back? Was he willing to do it this way?

Yes, he was.

“I’ll join you sir.” He said firmly, eyes locked with the captain of the ship.

The man in the red coat grinned, his earring catching the light of the room. “Alright. From now on, you’re to address me as captain Kirkland. You’ll start off as the lowest member of the crew- if you’re told by anyone on this vessel to do something, then you’re to do it straight way and without hesitation. Even if it means tossing your life so someone else won’t get their boots dirty. Do you understand?”

Alfred nodded. “Yes, captain. I understand.”

“Good.” He pulled his pistol from his coat again, and Alfred’s heart leapt back into his throat. However, the laser was not shot through his skull, but rather used to release him from his bounds. The gun was returned once again, and the captain waited for Alfred to stand on his own.

The other human brought himself to his feet, dusting off his soiled clothing. His balance was shaky, it had been some time now since he’d stood on his own. Nothing tied, no clinking chains, just his own body moving freely. He nearly fell over when the captain put a hand on his shoulder, bringing it down with a smack.

“Well boy, I don’t think that I’ve stopped to ask your name. What do they call you?” Arthur questioned. Alfred strengthened his posture, standing square at attention to his new superior.

“Alfred F Jones, captain.”

The firm grip on his shoulder left, and was couple with a few pats on the back. Arthur pulled his hand away, and began up the stairs that led to one of the middle decks. “Well then, Alfred F Jones, let’s have a drink, and celebrate your newfound freedom. Shall we?”

Alfred didn’t have any problem running up the stairs.

 

...

 

Warm yellow light was abundant throughout the entire ship, music in the air with it, and the harsh smell of booze settled in the scent receptors of all who had them. There was a spider-like creature playing several instruments, and vagrants across the gender spectrum danced and made merry with one another.

Alfred took a gulp of beer, wondering if he’d fallen asleep and wandered into a dreamland. That morning he’d woken up without any hope in the known universe, but here he sat, drink in his hand and clothes on his back. Whether he’d been pitied for sharing a species with the captain, or if the man had simply been so kind as to show him mercy, he didn’t care. This place was as good as any other out there.

To his surprise, he didn’t stick out amongst the other crewmen. That, or most of them were too drunk by now to care. He took a deep swig from his mug, trying to loosen himself up along with them. He felt a thud on the table, and he jumped. Turning to his left, the captain of the ship had stripped down to more casual clothing, eyepatch removed and hat hung somewhere else. A mug of beer in his hand, he turned it back, chugging it down like it was nothing. A cheer came from the crew as he wiped the foam from his lips. He took another mug in place of his empty one, but didn’t move to chug it down.

The music grew louder, and so did the laughter of the female end of the gender spectrum. Alfred reached for another mug as well, starting to feel the effects of the booze in his body. Another few gulps, all spent eyeing the captain, who sat criss-crossed in the middle of the table some ways down from him. Just seeing another human being was an immense relief.

The song changed, and out of them all, this was the first that Alfred could recognize. Surely a pick of the earthling captain himself, he was familiar himself with this tune, enough where he could dance. The booze in his belly told his mind that he shouldn’t let this opportunity go to waste.

He staggered up to the man on the table, slamming his near-empty glass of booze down onto the wood. The captain looked at him, lips never moving from his drink. “Wanna dance?” Alfred asked, sounding like more of an idiot than he thought he did. The other human finished off his drink, shaking his head.

“I thought I was making a mistake when I chose not to leave you down there in the cargo hold.” He said, speech moving this way and that. He stood on the table once more, reaching one hand out as an invitation for Alfred to join him. “Well come on then, I can’t just deny an offer from a bird like yourself.”

Alfred took his hand, and he was forcefully pulled up onto the table, and then made to jump down onto the floor. Within seconds the two humans were moving with dozens of other bodies, hands together, moving about in circles with the tune of the song. Both humans laughed, drunkenly spinning one another around, bumping into others only to be met with merry smiles. Music went on, the notes flooding the room in all of its warmth and drunken stupor. It played on through the night, with no dawn to look forward to. All that surrounded them was the glimmering light of stars.

 

...

 

Though there was no dawn approaching, the human body had its limits. Both the captain and the newest crew member held onto each other’s shoulders, working to get back to their beds. Alfred could hardly remember where he’d been shown to sleep, his mind was too hazy with alcohol to think of the layout of the ship. Just as he turned in what he thought was the right direction, the captain’s hand was there pulling him the opposite way.

“Come with me.” He said, drunkenly pointing in the other direction. Alfred could only suppose that he was going to be led back to the captain’s quarters, and now, he didn’t have the slightest objection.

“Aye-aye, cap’n!” He practically whistled. He followed the other human, boots moving out of time on the metal floor in a messy clip-clop. The pair went stumbling down a hallway and towards a door, the handle marked with a golden coating. Arthur fumbled around to find his key, but eventually it came out of his pocket and into the slot. With a series of clicks, the captain’s bedroom door opened. He motioned for Alfred to move inside first, holding the door wide open.

The other human entered the room, and even while drunk, he could take in the majesty of the pirate’s chamber. Red tapestries and blue velvets were draped about the room, furniture made with ivory and wood that ranged from some of the most expensive lumbers on their side of the universe. Everything was lined with gold, making the room shimmer as if they’d walked into a heavenly paradise.

“Wow...!” Alfred stated dumbly, swaggering in circles about the room.  

“That’s right.” Arthur bragged. “Some of the greatest riches of our universe are in this room.” He moved over to his bed, sitting down on sheets made of some material that Alfred couldn’t hope to identify. “However, there’s nothing more valuable than the man that calls it all his own.”

Alfred turned to the captain, eyes trailing his hand as they rubbed circles into the bed. They moved up his arms, and into the eyes of the other human. The captain ran his tongue over his teeth. “So then, young thief, do you think you can get away with taking this?” He asked.

The younger didn’t need any more of an invitation. The booze in his brain and the long time gone without the contact of another human drew him to the man, pinning his body down to the bedsheets. Their tongues wrapped together, the taste of already-swallowed beer heavy on both of their lips. Legs were knotted up together, only coming untied to remove trousers and throw them over some priceless object like it were nothing.

Alfred tried sloppy kisses down the captain’s neck and collar, biting here and there in response to the sharp breaths he gained. He held on to the fat of the other man’s thigh, rubbing circles into the flesh as he worked the other man’s body into a warm dough. He gave a long stroke with his tongue between Arthur’s pectorals, moving to tease his nipples with his tongue. The ship’s head kept one hand in Alfred’s hair throughout it all, thick brows knitted together.

There was only so much teasing of his chest that Arthur could handle before his swollen prick cried for attention. “Go on now, stop fiddling around and get on with it...!” The man barely made out between a lack of breath and lack of proper brain function. Alfred sat up, sliding on top of the overly soft bedding. He paused for a long moment, only irking the older man. “What’s wrong? You’ve gone still as a statue.”

Alfred blinked, his beer laden mind working hard to process his thoughts. “I uh... I’ve never been with anyone but a human girl. What am I supposed to do?” He mumbled. Arthur scoffed at him. He rummaged on top of his bedside table, tossing a crystal vial into Alfred’s hands. Surprisingly, the larger man caught it.

“‘S no different than a woman, just use that to slick it down there, yer gonna be fine.” Arthur slurred, legs spread wide. He watched with lust-heavy eyes as the other human fumbled around with the bottle he’d been given. A thick, syrupy substance sliding onto his fingers. Arthur chuckled, shoulders sinking into the mattress. His laughter was replaced with a sharp intake of breath as some of the fluid dripped onto the shaft of his cock.

Still not entire sure what he was doing, but confident enough to keep going, Alfred lowered his hand down to the cleft of the captain’s ass. He circled his fingers around the other man’s hole a few times, pressing a finger into the warmth of it. Gaining what was almost a purr from Arthur’s lips, he prodded around within his body, not waiting long before he followed with another digit.

His mind too hazy to think about of the give the other man a proper sense of pleasure, he blindly rubbed the inner walls of Arthur’s body. At one point, the blonde jumped, his hips leaving the mattress as they bucked forward. “That’s the spot...!” He cried out. Alfred hit it again, and then another time, earning an elated shout from the man each time. The sound of his voice made the younger man’s cock jump.

Alfred’s trousers already crumpled in another part of the room, he pulled his fingers out of the smaller man, reaching for the crystal container again. He poured more of the concoction into his palm, slathering it over the length of his cock. It was warm and sticky, and he couldn’t imagine that it had been produced anywhere on earth. Arthur’s eyes didn’t show any sign of wanting him to slow down soon, so he kept on going, pressing the head of his cock to the captain’s entrance.

He pushed in with relative ease, being locked in by a pair of legs that snaked around his hips. Nails trailed down his back, making Alfred’s flesh ignite with goosebumps. Below him, the other human grinned to show rows of white teeth. “Don’t feel like you’ve got to go easy now.” He murmured. “I’ve fucked things out here that haunt your nightmares.”

That statement ignited something in Alfred’s mudded head, and without a second’s hesitation, he started to thrust his hips inside of the other man. He moved his hips like a piston, the sound of skin hitting skin bouncing off of the shining walls of the bedroom. The sound of their voices, completely unhindered, drowned out the distant sound of music coming from the deck above. Eventually Alfred had curled down, both men holding each other in their arms, red lines all down the larger man’s back from the scratch of nails.

Practically burrowing the other man into the mattress, Alfred heard him cry out one last time, and the splatter of heat on his stomach followed seconds after. It only took a few more thrusts into Arthur’s heat for him to lose himself as well, emptying his cum deep inside of the man’s body. Both were left a panting mess, knotted together in a heap of sweat and the smell of old beer.

As Alfred pulled out, there wasn’t much time to exchange words. Arthur’s breath calmed down, and he fell asleep on his back, messy as he was. The younger man followed suit, flopping without grace to the other man’s side. He tossed the covers over them both, and was out like a light.

 

...

 

Pain.

That’s the first thing that registered in the mind of Alfred’s mind as he sat up from the captain’s bed the next morning. Then he felt the sensation of the previous night’s events as they trickled into the back of his mind. Regret wasn’t the right way to say how he felt, but rather, he was embarrassed that he’d slept with the captain on his first night.

He looked over to find the other man still asleep, a less-than-romantic expression painted on his face. Alfred scratched his stomach, moving to what he assumed was the captain’s private latrine. He could be wrong, and he could be wandering into a closet armed with lasers, but he was too hungover to even care if he was turned into swiss cheese. However, he escaped his fate as a hole-ridden mess, and found the toilet waiting for him on the other side of the door.

After combing his hair as well as he could with his hands and taking a good long piss, Alfred left the bathroom. There had been a shower in there as well, and what he wouldn’t have given to use it, but he felt that it wasn’t worth running the risk of being discovered by the hungover captain when he woke up. Collecting his clothes and tossing them back onto his body, Alfred left the man’s bedroom and left him to wake up on his own.

Once out on deck, Alfred found several other crew members already up and going about their business with maintaining the ship. One creature stopped him, looking him up and down. “Ah, yer the human we picked up from the warship eh? Cap’n Kirkland must’ve taken a liking to ya if he didn’t kill you off already. Probably went soft on another earthling.” He picked up a bucket and cloth, handing it to Alfred. “But, since yer the newest member of our lot, it’s your turn to scrub the top deck. Trailed a lotta fluid comin in yesterday.” He chuckled deep in his froglike throat. “And erh, I think a coupla of us lost some fluid this mornin’. Good luck.”

Alfred felt the creature give him a few firm pats on the back, boots clunking as he walked off to some unknown corner of the vessel. The human was left staring into the bucket, one eye twitching in horror of what might await him up above.

Head pounding, he trudged up to the top deck. Alfred dropped the bucket of water onto the the ground. His eyes widened up and suddenly the soreness in his body was eased, his brain enraptured by the sight in front of him. All around him were stars, colorful clouds in the distance, and sights that he’d never be able to dream of seeing with his telescope as a child. He looked up and all to his sides, taking in everything that surrounded him. This is what he’d been looking for. A life like this is what he’d wanted in leaving earth, he was sure of it. A life amongst the stars, far from earth and all of the troubles that had plagued him there.

With a newfound source of energy, Alfred whipped the cloth from his bucket of water. He had a deck to scrub clean.

 

...

 

Swabbing the deck was not as fun as the cartoons he’d watched as a kid had made it seem. If his hangover hadn’t been enough to do him in, several hours of mopping up the floor of the metal ship had. He’d cleaned up bodily fluids that crossed the entire rainbow, and it wouldn’t come as a shocker if he tossed some over the side of the ship and into the darkness of space as well. Alone, he held himself over the nose end of the ship. His eyes followed the lines of stars out in front of him, trailing a network unmapped by mankind.

When he heard boots drawing closer, he didn’t pay much mind. He didn’t even turn his head until he heard the swish of a coat along with them. To his surprise, the captain of the ship had joined him once more. To scold him for being reckless the night before, most likely.

Captain Kirkland silently hopped up onto the ship’s nose, his feet hanging off of the side as if he didn’t risk the threat of falling into the abyss. He patted the metal next to him, and Alfred quietly joined him, tense as he put his feet outside of the ship. Neither of them said anything, just looking out into the star-speckled void.

“You’re from earth, you say. What brings someone like yourself out to the opposite end of the universe like this?” The captain asked. Alfred blinked at him, and then turned back to face the stars.

“Well...” Alfred started. “I left earth about ten years ago, and I thought that somehow I was just going to spend the rest of my life travelling around the universe on a ship like this. I didn’t really stop to think about things like money and finding a place to sleep. So, I ended up broke, and I was just a petty thief on the planet that the warship came from. I got picked at random to be locked up on that thing. I think I was on it for six months.”

“Ten years?” Arthur pondered. “You’d have only been a kid... Needless to say, however, I know how you feel too. I stole this ship, and I stole half of my starting crew. They came, went, many of them died. Nobody’s bound to stay here- you and I included. I might fancy the next planet we set anchor at, and leave without ever coming back.”

“Aah....” Alfred hummed. He didn’t talk for another few moments. “Do you... I dunno, do you ever think about going back?”

“To earth?” Arthur asked him. “Can’t say I haven’t. If I’d been a little older in a little wiser, I might have stayed. Not to say that I have much regret- I’m havin’ the time of my life you know.” He shifted his hat on his head. “But in another fifteen years.... Hell, I’ll be old, and certainly not fit to pilot this old girl anymore. I could turn around right now, go another fifteen years, and go back home.”

“Yeah?” Alfred surmised. “Well, captain, it’s your ship. Do what you’d like.” He laughed. Arthur spun around, planting his feet back onto the main deck. The younger turned around as well, his but still planted on the rim of the ship. “Ay, where are you going?” He called out.

“I’m setting a new course!” Arthur called out.

“Where to?”

“Earth, you numbskull. Fifteen years to get there, might as well start now. You can use that time to pay me off for saving your sorry life, thief!”

Alfred blinked, and then grinned so wide, he could feel his cheeks pressing his eyes.

“Yes, captain!” 


End file.
